*Disclaimer* - I'm still quite optimistic about Indy 4, like I've always said, UNTIL DEFINITE WORDS ARE SPOKEN SAYING "IT...IS...OVER!", then I think it will happen.

In any case, I know I'm not alone when I say it would be awesome to read Darabont's screenplay. Even if they called it quits on the movie, I would "be ok" if somehow that work was published, circulated, whatever...

From the way it sounded, it was a great story (and I know I'm reliving two years ago here- but what the heck). What brought this to my mind again was spielberg's semi-recent comments about how great Darabont's script really was. I started going back to all those Darabont comments about how he made the Indy he most wanted to see as a die hard fan, and it just makes me want to read that story. It IS "out there", just floating around on some hard drive. Unlike the movie itself, that script DOES EXIST!... somewhere.

I know we would never see that script in any case, but if you could and they never made the movie, would anybody else here be CONTENT to just READ that script?

If it's like the 'Saucer Men' script, which I painstakingly scanned and edited, the few copies exist on paper with huge unique codes stamped in the middle of each page. The Darabont household possibly has digital versions composed on an offline computer. He lives (used to live?) at 4474 Dundee in LA. I'm not advocating anything.

Q: How difficult is it when someone takes a script of yours and then never makes it? Iím thinking of the whole Indiana Jones thing.

Darabont: That was the most frustrating of all, and that was the straw that broke the back of me wanting to continue in that line of work. That was terrifically frustrating. I worked for over a year on that; I worked very close with Steven Spielberg. He was ecstatic with the result and was ready to shoot it two years ago. He was very, very happy with the script and said it was the best draft of anything since Raiders of the Lost Ark. Thatís really high praise and gave me a real sense of accomplishment, especially when you love the material youíre working on as much as I love the Indiana Jones films.

And then you have George Lucas read it and say, ĎYeah, I donít think so, I donít like it.í And then he resets it to zero when Spielberg is ready to shoot it that coming year, [which] is a real kick to the nuts. You can only waste so much time and so many years of your life on experiences like that, you can only get so emotionally invested and have the rug pulled out from under you before you say enough of that.

Q: Coming from an insiderís perspective on that whole thing, do you think that movieís ever going to happen?

Darabont: I donít think so. I donít think so. But thatís just my opinion, I could be wrong. I just think itís fantastically bizarre that for a project that people have been trying to crack for ten years and have a writer come in and finally crack it and have a director who happens to be Steven Spielberg, one of the greatest directors of all time, and then say, ĎNo, I donít think soÖí Itís just bizarre to me. I canít get into Georgeís head.

Of course that pisses every rationally thinking person off. Always presuming that Darabont is not just naturally pissed too and going crazy but actually right.
Who knows that. Maybe George actually has a point.
But, as you said it shenshaw, it is just so logic nowadays to talk about George Lucas not having the point, being wrong. And we all experienced some of that quite wrong stuff and were in some cases "tortured by it".
On the other hand he is the goddamn creator of this thing we love.

And why the heck does Steven let George go with his way??? Why don't they just pack out their gun and whip and we'll see who wins? (I'm really going crazy...)

But to answer sheshaws question:

I'd die to read that sucker. In any given case.

If it is any good... and indyIV never gets made...of course I'd feel sad sad sad sad sad sad sad, desperate and just freaking annoyed.

This would be the big tragic ending (one of the biggest tragic situations in cinema history, if you ask me ) of a trilogy that in it's making seemed like a fairy tale because everything just went so good. Every decision always seemed so perfect and all luck (just think of Tom Selleck) seems to have been always on their side.
And then that.

Can't they at least go with the Darabont script if the new one finally won't work out? I just don't want to belive that this is not an option.

But then another question arises:
Devin supposes in his little prefacing article that the Darabont script dealt with UFOs. I dunno how he got to that conclusion, though. Was it after the rejection of the Darabont script that they reestablished that idea of the "connected" "McGuffin"? Meaning that Darabont wrote on UFOs and the new one centers around something completely different...

*sigh*

Moedred: I count on your localizing skills. BTW: Are you working in the intelligence business or what

This is a dream / naive speculation but:
If Darabont would unnoticed (which is impossible) help his screenplay to get read by...us and we liked it (which in it's homogenic manner is impossible too) then our pressure could become damn hard.
But then again....I am all for the seperation of fans and artists...

From what I know elements of Frank's script, are going to be used. Like the interview snippit said, Steven loved the script, it was George who didn't. I think only because George wanted to use his own. (George fancies himself a great script writer)

Steven still holds a lot of sway over George...not enough to convince him to use Frank's Labor of Love, but enough to force George (no pun intended) into chosing a script before they loose their window of time. In fact, I think Steven might be so bold as to start production without George. That is how badly Steven wants to shoot this film.

Not to stick up for Lucas or anything, but Darabont's script was probably about UFO's- and we all know Mr.Steve(Close Encounters,War of the Worlds,ET,AI,ect.)Spielberg would be totally stoked about that- but the bottom line is, Indy and spacemen don't belong in the same movie, and Lucas knows it. Hopefully that is the reason Frank's script was trashed, and not George's ego problems.

From what I know elements of Frank's script, are going to be used. Like the interview snippit said, Steven loved the script, it was George who didn't. I think only because George wanted to use his own. (George fancies himself a great script writer)

Steven still holds a lot of sway over George...not enough to convince him to use Frank's Labor of Love, but enough to force George (no pun intended) into chosing a script before they loose their window of time. In fact, I think Steven might be so bold as to start production without George. That is how badly Steven wants to shoot this film.

Your words in Spielberg's ears.... I really want to believe that.
As far as these cryptic posts are concerned.... isn't it enough to be confused by Spielberg, Ford ....Lucas and now....Darabont?

as far as lucas' selfesteem as a writer is concerned
Didn't Lucas a long long time ago tell Coppola that he was a bad writer? I think it was before THX was to be turned into a feature film. Coppola didn't believe him. Then when he read George's work on a THX script....he believed it and Walter Murch startet to write WITH george.

And then George tells about how hard it is for him to sit down and write something. Although even very good writers would probably agree with thas description of writing as indeed hard work I also think it tells something about his own perception of himself...as a writer.

Thus I don't really see him thinking of himself as a great writer. I can only believe that he is very (...too...) self confident in his ability to know what works and doesn't for Indiana Jones....

Where does this interview come from, anyway? I thought it was more then two years ago since Darabont officially worked on the project. We already knew his script was rejected, so what's the news value? Looks like I'm missing something ...

Not to stick up for Lucas or anything, but Darabont's script was probably about UFO's- and we all know Mr.Steve(Close Encounters,War of the Worlds,ET,AI,ect.)Spielberg would be totally stoked about that- but the bottom line is, Indy and spacemen don't belong in the same movie, and Lucas knows it. Hopefully that is the reason Frank's script was trashed, and not George's ego problems.

I think Indy and spacemen is a wonderful concept, and that it could work very well, especailly because famous archeological sites around the globe seem to have an eerie twinge of something influencing the ancient creators from beyond the planet, or from the sky above, and it is common in the ufo scene to hear that most ufo sightings happen around ancient structures. Although I do agree that speilberg has done alot with the Ufo idea and maybe it would be too much overkill in that genre but If Franks script was about that subject I would absolutely love to get my hands on it, especially cause I am a huge fan of both Indy and Ufo's. I wonder if George ever sneeks into the Raven bar late at night and reads these obsessive chatterings?

Darabont says getting rejected by Lucas was "a real kick to the nuts." (That's a brand new interview from Nov. 6 2006, by the way.) Maybe he's here at the Raven too, commiserating. Or sitting outside on a snowbank.

I think Indy and spacemen is a wonderful concept, and that it could work very well, especailly because famous archeological sites around the globe seem to have an eerie twinge of something influencing the ancient creators from beyond the planet, or from the sky above, and it is common in the ufo scene to hear that most ufo sightings happen around ancient structures. Although I do agree that speilberg has done alot with the Ufo idea and maybe it would be too much overkill in that genre but If Franks script was about that subject I would absolutely love to get my hands on it, especially cause I am a huge fan of both Indy and Ufo's. I wonder if George ever sneeks into the Raven bar late at night and reads these obsessive chatterings?

I like Indy, and I like UFO stories, but just not together. It seems too SciFi to mix the two. Check out Indiana Jones and the Saucermen from Mars story, and you will see what I mean- It just doesn't feel like Indiana Jones...plusthe ending is lame. I would also love to read Darabont's script.

I like Indy, and I like UFO stories, but just not together. It seems too SciFi to mix the two. Check out Indiana Jones and the Saucermen from Mars story, and you will see what I mean- It just doesn't feel like Indiana Jones...plusthe ending is lame. I would also love to read Darabont's script.